i felt i was invincible you wrapped around my head
by lee.s.pluto
Summary: four times will wanted to kiss nico's hands, one time he did. spoilers for toa/tbm! (title from chlorine by twenty one pilots) (solangelo)


**a/n:** **in case you didnt see the summary, there are spoilers for trials of apollo, including the burning maze**

 _one._

Will's hands were shaking. His body was pumped high with adrenaline. He didn't know why exactly, but he could narrow it down to three distinct possibilities.

1) He had just helped deliver a baby satyr. An _infant._ He, Will Solace, helped someone give birth. And that shit was nasty. And now his hands were shaking.

2) He wanted fresh air, so he volunteered to go try and mess with the Romans' shit, but he was a healer, not a warrior, and he was freaking out, worried of making literally any of the smallest mistakes. And now his hands were shaking.

3) An extremely pale-looking (or rather, even paler than he was when last seen) Nico had just appeared, and Will was talking to him and had had a huge crush on him for a while (at least a year) and holy shit were his hands shaking now.

And the idiot said it too.

"I just helped deliver a baby satyr," he heard himself say. Or something like that. "My hands are shaking." _Shut up._ "No, seriously, feel them." Like he cares. But then Will shoves his hands into Nico's. And the Apollo kid immediately hates himself. He's traumatized.

But Nico humors him, if only out of confusion and his moment of recovery from shadow travelling. And in that moment, floods of darkness dispell from Nico- no, not dispell, because he is producing and releasing it equally. Floods of darkness _exude_ from the son of Hades.

It's all Will can do to not flinch away because _holy shit, he's holding hands with Nico di Angelo._ The other boy's cold and pale hands are calloused and scarred, and they're shaking a little, too. And this sounded really weird, but Will wanted to kiss Nico's hand, to calm them, to chase away the darkness. To help him. And yeah. That's hella weird.

So he pushed the thoughts away, he let Nico release his hands (though he felt emptier without something to hold), and he vowed to himself that he would not think further of it.

But he still found himself gravitating towards the boy. Impressing him. Or trying to at least. He got Romans chasing him. Backfired. Did his killer whistle. Begrudgingly wasn't awful, but Nico wasn't all that impressed. Finally. _Finally._ A chance. That pale, scrawny, awful little kid leading the Romans was prepping an onager.

Will wove his way through the fighting masses, feeling strength pulsing through him, thanks to the Athena Parthenos. He was much more energized than ever, despite his constant healing and peace keeping not being physically taxing. He saw Nico in battle, fighting beside Jason.

He sprinted up to Nico's ear, and whispered the one thing he could think to say: "Octavian."

Immediately, he had Nico's attention. The two sprinted off towards the Roman immediately, and Will couldn't help but feel a small ounce of pride. He did it. He helped Nico.

The two confronted Octavian, and the Roman's snotty attitude was annoying. His bargaining was infuriating. But he drew a line. Will Solace drew a line, and Octavian crossed it.

The child of Apollo- the _real_ child of Apollo- shoved Nico behind him, and lunged towards Octavian. That phony, awful little-

What he said aloud, he did not know. He was pretty sure he threw out the term anemic loser, which just about ended any chance of Nico thinking he was cool. And yet still he had ranted at him.

Like everything else, the interaction was a complete blur. Trying to stop Octavian. Nico letting him go. Him launching off, and hitting a golden dragon, one that Will knew was Leo. The golden haired boy winced. There was no recovery from that.

He suddenly remembered showing Leo around camp, and checking in on him while he built the Argo II, and chatting. And as Nico stumbled back, and Jason and Piper screamed, and everyone tried to figure out what happened, Will saw a metal dragon fly away.

Leo had a plan, probably.

Will looked at Nico in concern. And again, the thought flooded into his mind. Of kissing his hand to soothe him.

 _two._

Three days. That's how long Will had given himself to pluck up enough courage to get Nico to see him. Or rather, for him to pluck up enough courage to befriend Nico.

The infirmary was the perfect excuse- and, in fact, Will really did think Nico needed time in the infirmary. He was surprised, to be honest, that the son of Hades agreed to it. Though the moment he stepped over to talk to Percy, anxiety surged through Will.

What if Nico was lying, or wouldn't go?

But no. He went. Will led him to the Big House, where the infirmary was. And he relaxed a little.

A very nervous Will gave Nico a bed, and it was only a matter of minutes before the exhausted and injured boy was asleep. Just with a single glance, he could see a heavily wrapped arm. The bandages were bloodied and old.

Gently unwrapping them, Will winced. The scratches were awful and deep and quite probably infected. "Oh gods, Neeks," Will muttered.

The mostly asleep boy could only instinctively reply with "Don't call me Neeks."

Despite it all, Will couldn't help but smile, shaking his head. But then he regained his seriousness, examining the wound once more.

It took him a while. But he managed to fix up Nico's arm. The patient was still asleep. He couldn't find any other wounds without the son of Hades awake, so he sat and waited for Nico to awaken.

Pretty soon, though, it became apparent that Nico was having a nightmare. And try as he might, Will just couldn't shake him awake. He just about grabbed Nico's hand. Just about kissed it, in an attempt to sooth him, like Will's mother used to when _he_ had nightmares. Back when it was safe enough for him to live at home. But grabbing Nico's hand, kissing it, that would be weird, probably. Definitely, most likely. So the son of Apollo pushed back the urge, and continued to try to awaken Nico, eventually being forced to grab the glass of water on the bedside table and dumping its contents on Nico.

The child of Hades sat up, sputtering. "Wh- huh?"

"Hey, Nico," Will said gently. "Sorry to drench you. You were having a nightmare."

"Explains why I'm wet," he answered shortly, sarcastically, and barely audibly.

"Are you okay?" The blond medic was overwhelmingly concerned for Nico, but he tried to tone it down. Tried to keep it less noticeable.

"Peachy," came the dry, brittle response. Though the pale kid clutched his hands close to his heart. Then he turned over and settled back down, presumably to sleep.

But Will could tell he was silently crying. He considering the soothing trick his mother taught him once more.

 _three_.

It had been a week since Nico had been released from the infirmary. Will wasn't quite sure how, but he somehow had managed to get Nico to be his friend.

And by friend, he meant he could pester the son of Hades without getting his head cut off.

Will definitely didn't use this to advantage by, say, randomly screaming memes or anything, even if Nico didn't understand why we had to do it to him, or who _dat_ boi is, but regardless it was fun to mess with the Italian.

"Don't do it," Nico snapped, whipping Will out of his thoughts.

"Do what?" asked the blond innocently.

"One of those... oh gods, what are they called? The really dumb-"

"Memes?" Will was trying his hardest not to laugh.

"Yeah, the memes. Don't do it."

"I wasn't planning on it."

"You have that look in your eyes, like you're... gonna have to do it to him."

Will couldn't help it. Suddenly, he was laughing so hard he couldn't breathe. It was somewhat short lived, but still nice. "You did it. You are dat boi."

" _I'm_ that boy? How long have I-"

Will shook his head, still smiling. "Never mind, di Angelo."

Nico gave a smile- an incredibly tiny, minuscule, momentary smile- and shook his head. "You're lucky you're cute, Solace."

Will froze, his face turning red. "Pardon?" he asked, though it came out more like "Wh- haskfh?"

Nico frantically cleared his throat, avoiding eye contact. "Nothing! I said nothing."

"I'm pretty sure he called you cute!" called a voice that sounded suspiciously like Jason. Nico looked away, beet red, but still flipping off the general direction of the voice.

Looking down at his shaky hands, Will cleared his throat. "I- uh, I really. Um. Fuck. I really like- you, like, I have- well-"

"Will," came the gentle, accented voice. The blond boy looked up, and Nico took one of his freckled hands, covering it as best his smaller, calloused hand could. "I like you too. Romantically. I mean- assuming- ah, shit-"

"Really?"

Nico, flustered and looking scared, nodded weakly, and a grin slowly grew on Will's face.

"So. Um." _Shit, how did people do this?_ wondered the son of Apollo. "Would you- um- uh, like to be my? Uh. Boyfriend?"

The Italian gave a small smile. "Yeah."

And then, holy fucking Hera, the two kissed. Will felt so overwhelmingly giddy that he almost started laughing. It was a small peck, which left the two grinning boys staring at each other.

Nico lifted his hands slightly. "My hands are shaking so hard," he said. And for a second, like so many times previous, Will wanted to kiss them. Instead, he gave Nico a tight hug.

 _four_

Bliss. That's what it had been, so far. It was winter already, and quite honestly, despite the lack of functional prophetic powers, Will doubted he had ever been happier. He and Nico had been sitting by the lake, holding hands and being complete dorks when Austin came running towards them.

The blond boy's eyebrows came together in confusion, because Austin looked undeniably hectic and freaked out. "Will, some kid claiming to be Apollo just appeared from the woods and fainted, we need you to take care of him!"

"Has he been moved yet?" demanded the medic, leaping to his feet, Nico beside him.

"No, where should we take him?"

"Put him in the Apollo cabin. We have more than enough bunks at the moment, and if he really is Apollo..." Will's voice died at this point. He couldn't force out the concept. Nico gave his hand a squeeze.

Austin nodded. "Now c'mon, I think it's a bit serious."

So the three teens went sprinting for the cabins, by the stretch of forest that Austin had been near. It didn't take too long to arrive.

"Neeks, can you help me move him?" asked Will.

"Don't call me that," the pale boy reminded him fiercly, though complying. They had just started to move him when a short girl with glasses skipped towards them.

"Cool, are you the medics? That's Apollo. He's basically my slave, but he doesn't have any powers. He went crazy out in the woods after getting beaten up by thugs."

"Shit, this is bad," Will hissed. "Okay, kid, nice to meet you, but if what you say is true then we've gotta hurry up."

It felt like forever, by the time they finally got the probable-Apollo in a bunk, Will digging around in drawers for medical supplies. He managed to find a small bottle of nectar, and poured a small amount down the beaten up kid's throat.

As Will proceeded to clean up the blood on the stranger's face, he studied them. His patient looked pretty average, no one out of the ordinary, and certainly not how Will expected his father to look (not that he ever expected to see the sun god looking _his_ own age). He sat down, shaking, only to immediately sit back up as Apollo's lips began to steam.

" _Fucking shit,_ " he yelped, suddenly connecting to the fact that Apollo had had blood on his face, as opposed to ichor, and that he shouldn't have assumed his patient could even have ambrosia or nector.

"What the...?" Nico breathed quietly.

"I think he's mortal," Will explained, freaking out. "Do you know? Like... can you see if he's going to... y'know?"

"Die?" asked Nico. Will nodded. "I can't say. I can feel when someone dies, and I can see someone's mortality, but I have to make eye-contact for the latter. I try not to practice it."

Will nodded, suddenly ashamed as he realized that he had been asking Nico to embrace one of the parts of him self he was the most ashamed of. "Sorry, that was really insensitive," he apologized.

"No need to apologize," his boyfriend insisted. "Or should I say _Apollo_ -" (at this he pointed at the patient, emphasizing the syllable) "-gize."

Despite it being a very dumb joke, Will couldn't help but laugh. "I hate you. No, I love you."

He turned back to Apollo, whose lips were no longer steaming, trying to decide what to do, when he froze. He had just told Nico he _loved_ him. He told his boyfriend for the very first time that he loved him.

Will very slowly turned back to the son of Hades, who seemed to have also just realized what had happened.

"I mean-" Will blurted, just as Nico quietly mumbled something. "What?"

The Italian was very flushed looking. "Me too. Or. You too. I like- I love you too."

Will, no doubt completely red, stared at Nico, eyes wide and smile large, as the other stared back similarly. The two stared each other, seemingly frozen, until the former god lying on the bed broke their trance.

"Heard you... forest..." he mumbled, shifting uncomfortably. Both Will and Nico jumped about ten feet out of their skins and whipped their attention back to Apollo.

"Right. Um. I should. Probably take care of him," Will stammered, turning back to the injured former god.

Hours later, long after his patient was in a stable condition, and Nico had retrieved food for the two, and the sun was no longer in the sky, still they sat, hands tangled together.

"Hey Neeks," Will hummed. Nico turned, grumbling something tiredly (probably something along the lines of 'don't call me that') when he was cut off by the blue eyed teen. "I love you."

Nico was completely beet red. Their hands were both trembling. "I love you too."

Will wanted to swing their hands up and press a kiss to Nico's, but again, he hesitated, and instead settled on just an average, traditional kiss.

 _five._

It was the middle of the night when Will woke up. He was tangled with Nico in the latter's bed, where he slept because sleeping on his own in his cabin left him to stress over whether or not his father- whether or not Apollo was alive and resulted in no sleep, ever. At first the blond boy wasn't sure why he was awake. It lasted less than half a second.

It clicked- Nico had let out a shriek, and was currently sitting straight up, sobbing. Will scrambled to sit up as well.

"Nico? Love, what's wrong?" asked a very worried Will.

Nico turned to face the blond boy, tears running rapidly down his face. "J- Jason- I f-felt-"

The son of Apollo felt a sinking feeling in his chest, though he wasn't sure precisely why.

"H- he- he's _dead_ ," Nico choked out, collapsing into Will's chest.

" _What_?" Will whispered, nearly inaudible. Impossible. Jason was... he was the big hero, he was like Percy: always able to save the day. Invincible. Immortal. Dead. "No."

It was, as he thought, impossible. Some sort of mistake. Perhaps a mere nightmare. But demigods didn't have 'mere nightmares'. His heart began to plummet, even if Will was never particularly close to the Roman.

He wrapped his arms tightly around Nico. "Gods. Fucking hell." Suddenly, anger started to rise up, but just as quickly, Will managed to swallow the emotion. Nico continued to sob, shaking.

After a little bit, Will guided Nico back so that they could make eye contact.

"Listen, Nico," Will said gently, tears spilling out of his eyes now as well. "We need to tell Chiron."

Nico nodded, but looked unwilling to leave the cabin, and with it the warmth and protection of lying there with Will.

"We can tell him when the sun is actually up," Will compromised after reading the smaller boy's expression. The darker haired boy nodded, wiping away the still spilling tears.

Will grabbed Nico's hands, which were shaking, and brought them to his face, gently kissing the fingers. "I can't promise everything will be fine," admitted the scared blond. "But I can promise that I'll be right beside you the entire time."

Nico nodded, drawing in deep breaths and managing to slow, and soon stop, the flow of tears. "Th- thank you, Will," he said, clearing his throat as he spoke. The two teens lied back down.

"I love you," whispered the taller one as they curled back up together.

The following week or so was hell.

First they had to tell Chiron, who seemed to age before them, while Nico's tears returned. Then they had to break the news to the other campers, who were in complete and utter shock.

By the weekend, Percy and Annabeth came up to visit, and were chirping away happily for about five seconds before noticing Nico's expression and asking what had happened.

"J- There was..." Nico stammered for a few moments. "Something happened on the west coast. Probably with Apollo. Jason-"

Tears started to flow, and that was really all that was needed to tell Percy and Annabeth what had happened.

Again, and again, and again. Tears returned. Late at night. Glancing at the Zeus Cabin. Thunderstorms. Just because. A pair of glasses Jason lost in some dumb place being discovered by someone- under Thalia's tree, somewhere in the Aphrodite cabin, stuff like that.

And everytime Nico started to cry again, Will gave him a gentle kiss on the back of the hand to give him a simple reminder: Will was always by his side.


End file.
